Wasted Opportunities

Chapter 4

Emily's POV

During the next few days, I didn't speak to my parents much. I didn't see them a lot anyway, because of school and homework, but I did my homework in my room, played the piano a lot, and when I did have free time, I sat in my room alone, watching 5sos videos on YouTube or talking to Maddy on Facebook. When I did talk to them, I kept my responses short, and acted like I had nothing interesting to say.

One evening, I was sitting in my room, watching an old 5sos twitcam and laughing as they messed around and teased each other. My mum came in, and stood there for a minute watching me, until I saw her and paused the video.

“You really like them, don't you?” she asked, looking around my room to see the posters of 5sos on the walls.

“Yes,” I sighed. “They're my favourite band. I'd do anything to just meet them once.”

“I know that you really want this,” said my mum, sitting down on my armchair and looking at me sadly.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do. I would get to spend so much time with them, and it would be so fun, and I've always been told to take every opportunity that comes my way.” I wiped my eyes angrily as I felt myself begin to cry again.

“You do understand our reasons, though? It's not just us trying to take away your happiness. We want what's best for you, and we just don't think being away for a long time would be good. All of the other people will be a lot older than you, and they'll want to go out sometimes, and I'm just not sure it's a good environment.”

“It's only a month and a half!” I protested.

“There would be a lot of rehearsals as well – it would be hard work!”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath, trying not to argue. “I get all of your reasons for not letting me go. I understand all of that. But no matter how many reasons you come up with, I'm still going to want to go. I'm still going to be sad about it, for a long time. I'm probably not going to forgive you for a while.”

My mum smiled sadly. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I really am.” She left, and I was disappointed again. I had really hoped that she had come in to tell me that she had changed her mind.

The next evening, I was heading up to my room after supper, when my mum called me back.

“Come and sit with us? Like you used to?”

“Alright,” I sighed. I went into the living room and threw myself on the sofa, grabbing my laptop and opening it up.

“Just before you get involved in anything, we need to talk to you,” said my dad, and I closed the laptop again to look at him.

“We've been thinking, about this tour thing,” said my mum. “We know that you really want to go, and we've felt so distant from you this week. I'm not promising anything, but I think we could look a little further into this. Talk to somebody who knows about it, see what they think. And if it sounds okay, then maybe... maybe you could go.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you! Thank you so much!” I ran over to my parents and hugged them both. “You won't regret it, I promise!” I went straight onto Facebook to tell Maddy, and we were both fangirling for the rest of the evening.

I messaged 5sos on their DM the same evening, letting them know that I was interested, but my parents wanted to know more before they let me go. We arranged a meeting on a Saturday in a few weeks, which my parents were slightly annoyed about because they had to drive me a fairly long way, but I was immensely excited about because I would actually get to meet 5sos!

“What will I wear?” I asked Maddy at school the next day. “I mean, I want to look cool, kind of like them, but I don't want to change too much, I won't be able to keep it up through the tour, and what about my shoes? Ashton once said that one of the first things he notices about a girl is her shoes.”

“I'm sure you'll be fine,” Maddy laughed.

“I should wear my black skinny jeans, and I need a top... do you think they'll think I'm weird if I wear one of their t-shirts?”

“No, they'll just see that you're a fan!”

“Okay, I'll wear that. What about shoes?”

“I don't know!”

“I'll probably just wear my Converses...”

We managed to fill a surprisingly long time just discussing what I was going to look like when I met them, because we agreed that first impressions were important. I wanted my hair to be blue, because I had always planned that my hair would be dyed if I ever met them, and I thought that was probably part of the reason they considered me for the job in the first place. I was worried that they would reconsider when they found out I was only sixteen – I looked a lot older because of my height, and the video probably wasn't the best quality. There were so many worries and thoughts running through my head, and I couldn't wait for that weekend to come.

A/N

Sorry that 5sos haven't come into the story yet, I know that makes it kind of boring :( I promise they will be in the next chapter though! It would be great to get some comments on this chapter (I have got some so far but only from my friend who's featured in the story!) just to see what people are thinking – I don't mind what it is, just to say that you've read it all and like it so far would be really encouraging, or if you don't like something then that can help me to improve it! Thanks so much for reading this far, it honestly makes me so happy :)